Earlier this month a new report came out which heavily indicts certain commonly sold neonicotinoids pesticides in the collapse of bee colonies. Neonicotinoids are the first new class of insecticides in roughly 50 years and are different than most past pesticides because they are taken up through a plants’ roots or leaves and move through the plant like water and nutrients do. Neonicotinoids are fairly safe for use around people and animals.

Since 2006, discussions and speculations about honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder have been rampant. There have been reports that the disorder wiped out roughly half of the commercial hives used to pollinate farm fields. This is an environmental problem with huge commercial ramifications.

Last year, the USDA and EPA released a report summarizing the “state of the art” knowledge of the situation and ultimately concluding that the disorder results from a confluence of causes focusing largely on a type of mite and acknowledging that additional research was needed to determine risks from pesticides.

In the last year, I have seen many websites calling upon major home improvement chains to stop selling neonicotinoid insecticides. Here is one such on-line petition. While I generally tend to discount on-line furor (think the anti-vaccination fringe), in this case, it appears that the petitioners may have a solid point here. The new study reports that bees treated with a less than lethal dose of neonicotinoids vanished from their hives during the winter months and that those that survived failed to rear their young. While the mechanism by which the insecticide appears to cause these results is not understood, one fact came through, the colder the winter, the worse the effects. Given the winter that we just came through, this is very troubling and recent reports seem to confirm serious losses.